Conference programme
Date: 7 November 2024, 9:00 – 17:00 CET
Venue: Representation of the Free State of Bavaria to the European Union,
Rue Wiertz 77, 1000 Brussels, Belgium
Registration deadline : 31 October 2024
Co-organisers
Wood4Bauhaus Alliance | Bioregions | woodPoP European Wood Policy Platform | Holzcluster Steiermark
The conference highlight the vital role of the wood sector as a key driver of future competitiveness in housing and the climate debate, encouraging greater recognition and support from the new EU Commission and EU Parliament. It showcase the latest state-of-the-art in building design with wood and how the public sector can support more biobased construction to combat climate change. Members of the European Parliament and their staff, EC staff and experts, policy makers, and advocacy organisations were invited to join this policy discussion and networking event, in which over 160 participants attended in person.
Why a European policy event about wood?
The European wood sector represents a combined direct and indirect economic weight of 17.5 million jobs, €1,114 billion turnover and 7% of GDP (FHP 2023). It is a major opportunity to strengthen a competitive, domestic sector: European companies are global leaders in sustainable construction products and buildings, pushing the limits of engineering with tremendous versatility. Wood architecture offers solutions for all types of buildings and decisive advantages for affordable housing and social benefits, in rural and urban areas. A pan-European policy coordination is needed.
Transforming cities into carbon sinks
The conference highlighted the important role of the wood sector for the Clean Industrial Deal, Europe’s ambitious policy goal towards becoming the first climate-neutral continent.
Wood products are one essential lever to decarbonise the built environment. Forests/ trees sequester carbon into durable material, which is engineered into long-lived building products (structural elements, furniture, flooring, windows, etc). Installed into buildings, these store the carbon for decades up to centuries. Their production and use save significant emissions compared to conventional, energy-intensive materials.
By upscaling wood construction, cities will be turned into large-scale carbon sinks, and the construction chain will become a carbon pump to extract GHG from the atmosphere. Through circular solutions and cascading use of materials, the carbon storage can be further prolonged.
Fully aligned with the New European Bauhaus principles, building and renovation with wood brings together beautiful architectural design, sustainable use of materials, and inclusive renewal of urban spaces and communities.
The entire conference has been published online. Learn about how the wood sector emerges as a key player for combatting climate change and how countries and regions are encouraging and supporting this clean, just and competitive transformation of Europe!
Hosting organisations
Wood4Bauhaus Alliance is a coalition of the main EU wood sector umbrella organisations CEI-Bois, EPF, EOS and EFBWW, together with the InnovaWood network and the InnoRenew CoE, connecting research, industry and trade unions with the New European Bauhaus (NEB). The Alliance engages an open dialogue with all interested stakeholders to maximise the use of nature-based materials and sustainable building systems. The main objective is to raise awareness, strengthen policy dialogue and foster innovation in long-lived engineered wood products and hybrid, circular-by-design building solutions. The Alliance is chaired by InnovaWood.
BIOREGIONS is a knowledge-led platform dedicated to accelerating the development of sustainable and integrative forest-based circular bioeconomy. Bioregions members are Basque Country, Catalonia and North Rhine-Westphalia. The European Forest Institute (EFI) coordinates the Bioregions Facility.
WoodPoP – European Wood Policy Platform is an innovative policy dialogue platform to advance the sustainable use of wood. It is a dedicated forum for multilateral policy, knowledge and experience exchange between public and private actors from the wood sector for developing policy solutions, measures and recommendations to strengthen the wood-based circular bioeconomy at national and regional level. With 27 participating European countries, as well as around 150 different experts from stakeholder organisations, research and industry, the initiative is chaired by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Regions and Water Management of Austria. The Secretariat is hosted by the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO).
Wood Cluster Styria is the innovation driver and networking partner to support companies in the forest-based sector of the Styria region in Austria. With its 170 cluster partners, the interdisciplinary team connects, advises, develops, and promotes the regional innovation ecosystem, connecting science, business and policy in the cluster.
The Representation of the Free State of Bavaria to the European Union in Brussels is kindly hosting the event.
The conference is co-organised with support of the Horizon Europe project consortia NEB Academy Alliance (NEBA Alliance), EcoReFibre, AEGIR, EUFORE and digiNEB. The projects are (co-)funded by Horizon Europe and CBE JU and its members.
Part I – Morning Session
EU policy perspectives
9:00 Welcome to the Bavarian representation
Setting the scene: A competitive European wood sector addressing the future challenges
9:20 Keynote presentations
Climate positive building design, excellence with wood
The traditional material wood has a bright future – and fascination
Katharina Lehmann, CEO
Blumer Lehmann, Switzerland
Sustainable architecture for zero-carbon buildings and cities
Jakob Strømann-Andersen, Director of Innovation and Sustainability
Henning Larsen, Denmark
10:00 Panel I
Innovation for a Competitive Wood Sector
Carbon Removal Certification Framework: the role of bio-based buildings
Sevim Aktas, Policy Officer
European Commission, Directorate-General for Climate Action (DG CLIMA), Belgium
Innovation drivers in Estonia’s prefabricated woodhouse sector
Annika Kadaja, General Manager
Woodhouse Estonia, Estonia
Wood science for a sustainable future
Pasi Aalto, Director
NTNU Wood, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway
11:00 Networking coffee break
11:30 Panel II
Policies and Instruments
Introduction: Countries and regions fostering building with wood
Uwe Kies, Chair of W4B Alliance, Moderator
The new Commission’s approach to housing and climate policy
Wood construction for sustainable and inclusive housing and public infrastructure: case of Austria
Regional incentives to strengthen the wood sector: case of Galicia, Spain
Jacobo Aboal Viñas, Director
Galician Agency for Forest Industry. Regional Government (Xunta de Galicia)
Green Public Procurement and skills development: case of Slovenia
Wood construction in Bavaria, Germany
Bavarian State Ministry of Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Tourism
12:30
Conclusions and Outlook
A pan-European wood policy for a strong future circular bioeconomy
Georg Rappold, Head of Department ‘Wood Policy, Bioeconomy and Innovation’, Chair of WoodPoP
Federal Ministry for Agriculture, Forestry, Regions and Water
Management of the Republic of Austria (BML)
13:00 Lunch break
Session A
Governance and Policy
Best practices in public support tools and initiatives
Hosted by: Bioregions Facility and woodPoP
14:00 Welcome
14:05 National best practices
The Czech Wood Policy Programme
Tomáš Krejzar, Director
Department for Forestry Policy and Economy, Ministry for Agriculture
The Austrian Wood Initiative
Mathias Deutz, Policy Officer
Federal Ministry for Agriculture, Forestry, Regions and Water Management
14:30 Regional best practices
North Rhine Westphalia (NRW), Germany: Wood construction targets in social housing
Stefanie Wieland, Team leader Wood Industries
Galicia, Spain: Public procurement guide
Jacobo Aboal Viñas, Director
Galician Agency for Forest Industry. Regional Government (Xunta de Galicia)
14:50 Discussion
Policy measures supporting wood construction and innovative solutions: Which measures are working well? Where is room for improvement?
15:00 The European Wood Policy
The European Wood Policy Platform. Exchange, Connect, Collaborate
Veronika Steinhofer-Juch, Coordinator of the WoodPoP Secretariat
International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO)
15:15 Closing of session
Session B
Reuse, Reclaim, Recycle
Circularity approaches to reduce and valorise waste wood
Hosted by Horizon project EcoReFibre
14:00 Welcome
Superpan Tech, a high-performance board for passive buildings from recycled wood
Emma Romero, Architect / Head of construction solutions
ZICLICK, a plug & go panel design system as a service
Jacinto Seguí Mendez, Collaborative Development Director
Reclaimed timber: business opportunity for the circular economy (SirkTRE & Drastic)
Kristine Nore, Innovation Manager & Wendy Wuyts, CRO
15:15 Closing of session
The projects are funded under Horizon Europe
Session C
Innovative building products and systems for resource efficient, circular construction
Hosted by Horizon projects EUFORE and AEGIR
15:30 Welcome
Session moderator: Javier Garcia Jaca, Tecnalia
Overview of strategies and innovations in the European wood sector
Javier Garcia Jaca & Vanesa Baño, Senior Researcher
A flexible façade renovation system enhancing energy performance and circularity
Magdalena Zabek, Researcher
16:45 Closing of session
The projects are funded under Horizon Europe
Session D
The New European Bauhaus Academy:
Up- and re-skilling the sector workforce with innovative trainings
Hosted by Horizon projects NEBA Alliance and digiNEB
15:30 Welcome
Session moderator: Mike Burnard, University of Primorska
Architectural education: beautiful, sustainable, together
Roberto Cavallo, President
European Association for Architectural Education (EAAE) & TU Delft, Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment
The NEB Academy: A European Alliance for Innovative Training Hubs
Andreja Kutnar, Director/Professor
Training of construction workers for the green transition (CoVE Habitable)
Višnja Košćak, Manager for Internationalization
16:45 Closing of session
The projects are funded under Horizon Europe
Contact
Wood4Bauhaus – InnovaWood asbl | Uwe Kies | uwe.kies@innovawood.eu | +32 472 62 60 43
European Forest Institute – Bioregions Facility | Siebe Briers | siebe.briers@efi.int | +34 678 30 89 84
Short link to this page: bit.ly/wpic2024 | Last update: 30 Sep 2024
